Translating God’s Love

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Translators. When we hear the word "translator," we might think of someone who takes words from one language and turns them into another, making sure the message is clear. But the work of our Holy Translators goes much deeper than that. They took the living, breathing Word of God and made it come alive, real and relevant in the hearts and lives of the Armenian people.

We remember and honor the giants—Saints Sahag and Mesrob Mashdots, along with their disciples—who, in the 5th century A.D., gave us the Armenian alphabet and opened the door for us to understand God’s Word in our own language. They made the Scriptures accessible, bringing faith into the hearts of our people.

As St. Paul says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Because of their work, our people could finally hear the voice of God in words that spoke to their own hearts. The Bible was no longer distant or foreign; it became personal. It became the story of our people, the heartbeat of our faith, the foundation of our identity.

But not all the Holy Translators came from the fifth century. Some, like St. Gregory of Narek and St. Nersess Shnorhali, didn’t translate languages; they translated love. Through their hymns, their prayers, and their compassion, they made God’s love understandable to their generation. They became living translators of grace.

We honor these saints not only for what they did then, but because their mission continues in us. We live in a time when people are hungry for meaning, desperate for hope. Many people no longer speak the “language” of the church. They don’t understand words like grace, redemption, and salvation. 

But they understand kindness. They understand compassion. They understand when someone listens, when someone cares. That’s the language of Christ — and you can speak it fluently. When you show up for someone in pain, when you lift a burden, when you offer a word of encouragement — you are translating God’s Word into a language the world can hear.

May the example of Holy Translators inspire us to be living letters of God’s Word, written not on stone or paper, but on human hearts.